


We Prepared for the Turbulence

by PadawanRyan



Series: Quarantine 'Verse (aka Close Enough to Reality) [4]
Category: Fall Out Boy
Genre: COVID-19, Cisco Live, Commitment, Coronavirus, Family, Fluff, GODDAMN THAT WAS FAST, Light Angst, M/M, Performance, Pete and Patrick make important decisions, Quarantine, Surprises, WISH I COULD WRITE MY PHD COMP THAT FAST, social distancing
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-06-18
Updated: 2020-06-18
Packaged: 2021-03-04 07:40:26
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,606
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24780046
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PadawanRyan/pseuds/PadawanRyan
Summary: It wasn’t just Pete who had been having trouble with their time apart. He knew Patrick missed him too, sometimes more than Patrick was even willing to admit. Pete was the clingy one, after all, so it was his job to lay on all the pouty “I miss you”s during most of their phone calls. But he knew, regardless, that Patrick missed him too.So why the hell wouldn’t Patrick prepare him for this?
Relationships: Patrick Stump/Pete Wentz
Series: Quarantine 'Verse (aka Close Enough to Reality) [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1720804
Comments: 8
Kudos: 32





	We Prepared for the Turbulence

**Author's Note:**

> Alright, so when watching today's [Cisco Live performance](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGJmKF2oAZQ), it was pretty obvious to me and just about everyone else: these two idiots are sitting on opposite sides of the exact same room. So, considering this series has been based on them being apart but still taking into consideration legitimate things happening right now, I knew immediately that I needed to come up with a reason for them to be together in the same room suddenly after all the aching of being apart. I _needed_ to write a fic about it.
> 
> Obviously this was planned, they knew what they were doing, but the wonderful world of fiction is that we can make up our ideas. So, I thought, "well, what is Pete didn't know that Patrick was coming?" and this all _immediately_ fell into my lap. Well, the first half, that is — the second half definitely wrote itself, I didn't plan for this to end the way it did.
> 
> But anyway, here we go! Another fic in the quarantine 'verse but this time Pete and Patrick are _in the same room_.

The hardest – the _absolute fucking hardest_ – thing, if you had to ask Pete, about the pandemic wasn’t socially distancing when you’re thousands of miles apart.

No, the _hardest fucking thing_ was socially distancing when you’re in the _same fucking room_.

He wasn’t sure how they had managed it, why after months or making sure to keep their distance, Patrick had agreed. Maybe it was because he wasn’t going to be in charge of the technology and therefore he couldn’t screw things up because someone else was there to do it. Actually, Pete was pretty sure that had _a lot_ to do with it, because he knew that Patrick couldn’t bear to disappoint the fans. Patrick couldn’t really bear to disappoint _anyone_ , and it was such a precious thing about him that on a normal basis would have Pete smiling like Patrick was the only light in an otherwise dark world.

So, after months of being apart, Patrick came out to Los Angeles to join Pete for the Cisco Live performance. And it was _perfect_.

Except for the part where they sat on _opposite sides of the room_.

It had been painful to be so close to Patrick and still unable to touch. Although some people had been expanding their circles and lightening up on social distancing guidelines, Patrick wanted to adhere to them as much as possible. They spoke about it regularly on the phone, and yet somehow, the fact that Patrick was _going to be in the same room as him_ was not something that had come up at all. Had Patrick planned it in advance? Or had it been a last minute thing that he couldn’t exactly tell Pete before he had to switch off his phone and make sure his seat was in the upright position before takeoff? Somehow, he didn’t think it could possibly be _that_ last minute, but Pete couldn’t imagine Patrick being able to keep that a secret.

It wasn’t just Pete who had been having trouble with their time apart. He knew Patrick missed him too, sometimes more than Patrick was even willing to admit. Pete was the clingy one, after all, so it was his job to lay on all the pouty “I miss you”s during most of their phone calls. But he knew, regardless, that Patrick missed him too.

So why the hell wouldn’t Patrick prepare him for this?

 _There’s no preparing for this_ , he thought to himself momentarily. Hah. They really _had_ prepared for the turbulence, but this caught Pete out of left field.

They didn’t have much time to actually discuss the situation before they got started on the live stream. Pete couldn’t help but constantly glance across the room at Patrick, because how could they expect him to be in the same room as the other man and _not_ look at him? God, just being able to hear his voice _right fucking there_ was like addiction — he wasn’t sure he would adjust well to going back to phone calls and FaceTime again.

And the live stream went beautifully. They played both _Sugar_ and _Centuries_ , giving the fans a little bit of the old classics and the new(er) favourites, and Patrick looked _so fucking perfect_ that Pete really had to resist the urge to jump him right then and there.

The theme for Cisco Live this year was “possibilities” and goddamn, this was _not_ a possibility he even thought…well, possible.

He did manage to hide his surprise by pretending that the entire thing had been planned. Not that it hadn’t been, to some degree, since Pete _had_ known that he was going to be there and he _had_ known that he was going perform. His entire plan was to perform _Check Your Phone_ , since he had been milking that little collaboration for most of the pandemic. It was kinda cool to have his own Pete Wentz merch available for purchase, as though he actually _matters_ outside of Fall Out Boy — something which his golden, _perfect_ Patrick often reminded him.

Maybe it was something to do with the terrifying world context. Things were scary and maybe Patrick wanted to be there for Pete as best he could.

That still didn’t explain why Patrick hadn’t just _told him_ he was going to be there.

There had been a grand total of maybe thirty minutes before the stream began where they discussed what songs they were going to play. The two of them _had_ discussed potentially participating in live presentations over Zoom sometime during the summer, especially to make up for the postponed Hella Mega Tour, so they already had an idea of what songs they could play. Hell, they had _technically_ already practiced, now that Pete had gotten Patrick up and operating on Zoom. So, the last minute _Fall Out Boy_ performance as opposed to the _Pete Wentz_ performance, well…they could handle that. No problem.

But it was the last minute _Patrick is in the same room as Pete and Pete can’t even fucking touch him_ that Pete had a problem handling.

And the moment the recording stopped and Patrick looked over at him, guitar still sitting on his lap, Pete really had to fight the urge to throw down his bass, march over there, and take Patrick’s face between his hands before devouring that beautiful, smiling, _taunting_ mouth. Patrick must have noticed him staring because he asked, “Pete? You alright?”

Pete threw down – or possibly _placed down lightly_ – the bass before standing from his stool and walking over to Patrick, stopping still about a metre from where the other man sat. Oops, he should have been staying _at least_ two metres away.

“You’re here.” Wow, that was articulate.

Patrick nodded. “I’m here. I’m sorry I didn’t tell you, but I really wanted to surprise you.” The other man bit his lip. “And I was a little nervous.”

“ _You’re_ nervous? I’m struggling to keep myself from touching you and _you’re_ nervous?”

“That’s exactly why I’m nervous!” Patrick exclaimed. “Do you know how hard it is to sit here and see you right there and _not_ be able to _touch_ you? To hug you? To kiss you? To just fall into your arms and _stay there for the rest of my life?_ ”

Yeah, Pete knew _exactly_ how hard that was.

“If I told you,” the other man continued, “then you would have nagged me about it. No, don’t try to tell me that you wouldn’t—” Pete was actually about to say that, “—because I know you and _you_ know you, and you _know_ that you would have gotten it into your head that we would be together and we do this thing _just once_ and it would be fine. And maybe it would be, because we’ve both been doing pretty well at this socially distancing thing and we’d probably be safe and the kids would probably be safe, but would we _really_ be able to go back to things as they were before?”

Well…“No. Probably not.”

“Exactly. Your curse is that you overthink everything and sometimes get your hopes up. And it makes you such a wonderful, hopeful human being and I love you so very much for it. But I didn’t want to be the one to crush you. Not now. Not after everything.”

And god, while Pete had been a little angry – though he knew it wasn’t actually a _serious_ anger, more of just a _shock_ anger – he now felt it all slipping away.

Because Patrick was right. When wasn’t Patrick right when it came to him?

“I know it’s hard,” Patrick continued in a softer voice than before, “and believe me, it’s hard for me too. But we’ve gotta do this thing right.”

Pete nodded, reminded of many conversations between them where they had discussed exactly that subject. “If not for us then for the kids, right?” he asked, cracking a smile as he repeated the mantra that the two of them had formed between them. Every time either of them got the urge to nag the other – Pete thought _either_ , but he knew it was usually _him_ – about breaking the guidelines, they reminded each other that they had the kids to worry about. And that usually was enough to nip that right in the bud.

The other man nodded. “Right. For the kids.”

Not that Patrick looked particularly _happy_ with that agreement, but Pete wasn’t going to nag him. He knew better than to push after Patrick had _just_ discussed _exactly_ that.

“Can we make a promise, though?”

That caught Pete off guard. “Patrick, I would promise you _anything_. I would promise you the world, the moon, the sun, the stars. I would promise you my life, my—”

“You don’t have to promise me your soul. Well, not right now, anyway.”

“Okay, so what do you want to promise?”

“Well,” the other man bit his lip, “I know this is getting hard. You know this is getting hard. It’s not just _getting_ hard, it’s _been_ hard. And we don’t know how much longer it’s going to last. The kids are getting lonely without friends or their kinda-sorta-step-siblings around, and I really don’t want to have to keep them isolated at home for the rest of the year. That’s no way to grow up. And I don’t want to be stuck at home all the time either — it’s why I agreed to come out here and do this thing, aside from being able to make people happy.”

Pete nodded. “I get all that, but I’m not sure where you’re going with it.”

“Right. Okay. Pete, I want us to promise that if things are not back to normal – or close enough to normal – by September, that we come home.”

“Come home?”

“That the kids and I come back to LA and we stay with you. And Bronx and Saint and MJ. At _home_. Because yeah, sure, the Chicago house is home – it’s where we’ve lived since Elisa and I were together – but it’s also not the same as _home_ ,” Patrick tried to explain. “Do you get what I’m saying?”

Pete _enthusiastically_ got what Patrick was saying. Because Patrick was saying that they should be _together_. At _Pete’s house_.

“It means you’re moving in with me, right?” he asked, giving Patrick his best shit-eating grin.

“Uhhh, well, maybe?”

Oh. Huh. Now _that_ confirmation was not exactly something Pete was expecting. Not that he had any reason to oppose it, and not that much would change – Patrick and his boys frequently stayed at Pete’s house in Los Angeles before the pandemic, even before Patrick and Pete had managed to get their heads out of their asses about one another – but it was totally different to hear that Patrick actually wanted it to become…a little more permanent. Moving in together felt like such a huge step, one that neither of them should take lightly. But then again, they had been stepping around each other for almost twenty years and _had_ once already lived together, once upon a time, so was it _really_ such a huge step?

He couldn’t keep the awe out of his voice as he asked, “you really want to move in with me?”

“Kinda?” Patrick was tugging on the sleeves of his sweater nervously. “I mean, I’ve – we’ve, the kids and I – done this whole back and forth between Chicago and LA thing for a while. Maybe we can stop that? And just stay in one place…together?”

Pete smiled. He was pretty sure his smile looked manic, he couldn’t help but smile as though Patrick had just given him the _greatest gift ever_. It was a struggle not to just leap the extra metre forward and envelop the man in a hug, so he figured that smiling would have to be enough to show his immense joy at the prospect. “But you know,” he began instead, “we already _are_ a family. You’ll always be my family, Patrick. And so will the boys.”

“Yeah, I know.” The other man nodded and looked right up into Pete’s eyes. “But I’m done being apart from you. This has been difficult, and we really should have been quarantining together all this time.”

Pete agreed _wholeheartedly_ with that. He might have told Patrick the exact same thing once or twice.

“And,” Patrick continued, “I think I’m ready to do this right.”

Because despite that Pete was the one who had some commitment issues since his divorce – he certainly never wanted to get married again – it was Patrick who had been hesitant for them to do anything too _serious_ with their relationship. They already spent an immense amount of time together as best friends and colleagues, he had argued, and their kids were already used to having each other around. So, why shake things up? They knew they loved each other and they didn’t need to live together or get _some piece of paper_ to show that. Plus, the fans would figure it out pretty quickly and what an uproar _that_ would cause.

“By that you mean…?”

“Not marriage,” the younger man clarified. “I wouldn’t rule it out someday, if you knew that you were ready to take that step again, but no, I’m not proposing. I just think we should do the whole _official_ thing, and…be together. In the same home. All the time.”

“The fans would notice,” Pete pointed out, because he had to mention that. He didn’t want Patrick to worry about it later.

Patrick nodded. “I know. But I’m ready for that if you are?”

And _goddamn motherfucking fuck_ , Pete couldn’t just listen to that and _not_ sweep the other man up into his arms. Who would be so cruel as to expect him to continue standing here apart from him? But he kept his distance, because it wouldn’t be much longer. The reality of what Patrick was proposing – heh, _proposing_ , even though it wasn’t a _proposal_ – was finally sinking in and that meant that in only _two and a half more months_ , if they weren’t already getting back to normal, Patrick and the kids would be _coming to move in with him_. For good.

“Yes. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.” Pete was _thrilled_. “Yes, yes, yes! Oh, Patrick, you’ve made me the happiest man in the world.”

“That line is _so_ cheesy. Like, the cheesiest.”

“Yeah, but it doesn’t matter because it’s _true_. You make me so happy.”

Patrick was still holding onto the guitar and smiling up at him, and god, Pete would never trade this man for anything else in the world. He would give up _everything_ if it meant that he could have Patrick, but he wouldn’t ever _have_ to because Patrick would never expect that of him. That’s why they were so perfect together: neither had unrealistic expectations of the other, because they had known each other for so long and had gone through _so many_ ups and downs that there was nothing they couldn’t handle together.

And living together full-time, all the time, was the inevitable next step and Pete was _euphoric_.

“So, September then,” Patrick said. “That’s when we finally do this thing. When I can finally put my hands on you, when I can finally do all the things I’ve so been wanting to do to you all these months…” It was _not_ fair that Patrick could stand there and sound so sexy and _not_ touch Pete. Not fair at all. He would live with it, but still.

“Mhmm. I can’t wait. I’ll be there with bells on,” Pete responded, waggling his eyebrows at the other man.

“You better fucking not.”

**Author's Note:**

> So, now that Pete and Patrick have set this thing in stone, that means that if we don't have a _real_ reunion fic before September begins, that's when you can count on it happening. I'll be paying attention to the international news, as I already have been, because if things start to seem closer to _normal_ again in the US - at least in regard to the coronavirus and social distancing - before the summer is out, then they'll be in each other's arms again sooner.
> 
> But, considering everything right now, I do anticipate some more distanced phone calls before the actual _touching_ can happen again.
> 
> Follow me on social media! I'm **padawanryan** on [Tumblr](https://padawanryan.tumblr.com/), [Twitter](https://twitter.com/PadawanRyan), and [Instagram](https://www.instagram.com/padawanryan/). ✌️


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